I disrespect dishonorable dishonest behaviors and outcomes.
I disrespect people who feel comfortable lying and ignoring demonstrable physical facts of life.
I disrespect people who believe contracts are made to be broken and who possess no scruples, or sense of duty towards others.
Iām not sure how Iāve disrespected you write4u, even when I push back on some of your ideas. At least I strive to engage what you are talking about, and I can explain where we agree and where I think you make assumptions that arenāt yet warranted.
As for beyond that to the greater society, social thinkers and current mass reaffirmation of delusional thinking and totalitarian principles. Doesnāt the past half centuryās societal breakdown of USAās once proud Democratic principles and rule of law government prove that profound errors were made?
Iāve been torqued by derision all my life: Peter stop worrying about it! Then Iāve watched as one āsocial contractā after another got scrapped; TVās fairness doctrines; NPR watered down to a joke; FOX news making on air lies necessary for pushing fabricated storylines and profits; Christian totalitarianism (God in their back pocket); setting up a war mentality toward non-believers; a war to crush liberal progressives; with the dream of a hostile takeover of our government; assault rifle ban removed; gun fetish and resentment toward government folded into their media battle cries; Gingrich signing on to the plan to destroy Senatorial collegiality - it was now a war of us against them; then the wonders of computer technology and mass manipulation were embraced and advanced.
While the Democrats acted like wet noodles and gave up on Gore who won the 2000 election, and then failing in key moment, after key moment. Was the DNC already bought out? Were We The People already bought off - I mean who all really objected to USA marching into a totally fabricated war of convenience and profit, while the real Saudi Arabian perpetrators of 9/11 were ignored. Not to mention our military started getting privatized big time. Those were nightmare days for me, days that I understood doomed us to a future of nonstop international conflict and destruction. Since then, itās been like nothing has been learned, so we find ourselves in the current free fall, to mix metaphors, where she stops, no body knows.
I canāt help wondering why didnāt the good guys, the smartest people in the room come up with a few basic rational questions and lines of debate to push back with some serious notions:
Please understand we create our gods from our own mind - they are very real and very important to us and our community, but they come from within your own experience against the back drop of our human experience.
No one, but no one, has a personal relationship with God - any such spiritual, mystical, emotional attachment is made within the fabric of oneās own body. (i.e. Getting lost in oneās own mindscape.)
My God, your God, isnāt superior to all the Other Gods.
Earth needs to be better understood and protected because we depend on her health!
Honestly reflecting on physical facts and expert evidence and reports is critically important.
That the ideal of āgood faith behaviorā andā Truthā and honest constructive debates are required for healthy social structures.
Why so little attempt to recognize that our own greed was going to demolish the chance of our children having a healthy world for their own lives and needs? - Instead, they will grow up having to learn to live within a collapsing society, collapsing environments and with no healthy frontiers left to dream of and escape to. Doing the best they can dealing with the dead ends that remain for them to inhabit.
Getting back to respect. Iām sorry, sadly a lot of my intellectual heroes turned out to be bankrupt in the light of real events - often getting caught up in themselves and burning out. As Iāve grown older it is my observations and fears that have materialized.
If one thinks weāre on the right path, (the one we were promised back in the last century) of a happier and healthier world, I am probably a tough pill. You see, I look back and in spite of all the wonders we achieved - what overwhelmingly negates all that good - is the parade of collective errors in judgement and butt backward prioritizing and the massive degree of destruction we so flippantly inflict upon Earth and each other.
It was all so recognizable to a regular mediocre student whose eyeās and imagination were on the big world out there. Who happened to love ānatureā and who has become an old man, only watch my worst fears materializing before my eyes.
So yeah, along the way Iāve lost a lot of respect for a lot of one time heroes and some branches of academia as well, and while I strive to be civil, I have no more tolerance and even less humor for willfully ignorance and delusional thinking.
I accept that it is how it is and I like people and donāt mean to hurt anyone, so in real life I play nice, and appreciate how we each got here on an individual level that is dictated by our own individual lives and opportunities. I donāt need to prove myself to individuals, so donāt try. - - - Though, place me in an arena where we are supposed to be able to speak frankly and dig into deeper issues, then I will assume all participants have tough skin, and that frank honest discussion is acceptable.
Excuse the length, this turned into a personal exercise, thanks for your indulgence if you made it this far.
Itās not atheist that disrepsect theists. Itās the other way around.
Let me give you an little example of this. At a recent gathering. my wife mentioned that she was Democrat. And a bible thumping womans who hadpreviously complained about being persecuted by atheists cried out: āthen you are the anti-christā!
I call that disrespect. So who is disrespecting who?